Where to tap

[riley04]

I've got a pretty big (18" diameter) sugar maple prime for tapping, but it's only tht big for about 6 feet off the ground. Then there are 2 shoots that are about 12" diameter. I've heard rumors aobut not taping to close to a crotch in a tree. Any truth to that? Can I just tap about 4 feet up with no worries?

[Haynes Forest Products]

Yes. Now the reason you dont want to drill into the crotch is the bark can be imbeded in that area and there weak. Its easy to cause rot from opening up that area and you dont alway get good sap run so stay away. If you see alot of termoil in the bark area it means things are crazy under the bark so stay away. I feel the smoother the bark area the better the sap wood under that area.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Put 2 taps on it, one for each shoot and if you are using health spouts you should never run out of tappable tree and no reason to tap in the split as it would be hard to get a spout to fit in it correctly anyways.